Critics -- including competitors like Microsoft and Amazon -- argue that essentially granting Google a license to profit from orphan works is where the company could get its unfair advantage, and represents an end-run around congressional copyright authority.

The company also whined that here it is, willing to spend millions to create a modern, digital equivalent to the Great Library of Alexandria, so why are you ingrates giving it such a hard time?

But it is hoped that this compromise between authors, publishers, libraries, and a company willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to digitize so much of the printed history of humanity will be another small step toward the vision that the Alexandrian Library represents.

Even Alexander or Caesar might wince at such a grandiose proclamation.